Shanghai's Huaxin town thriving with urban renewal

Huaxin town in Shanghai's Qingpu district is gaining new vitality, as the city continues deepening efforts in urban renewal to build better livelihoods and help industries thrive for a promising future.

The grand urban renewal efforts in the town's Fengxi area started in 2023 and have seen remarkable achievements so far, rapidly transforming urban villages into livable communities with futuristic industry clusters.

Among these efforts is the launch of the Fengqi Yulan Park, which officially opened to the public on Oct 27. This water-surrounded 18,000-square-meter public space, which combines ecological landscaping, leisure, social and cultural functions, is lush with greenery and serves as a vivid example of the Fengxi urban renewal project.

"Urban renewal is not simply about tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones. It is a systematic process of restructuring space, reshaping functions and revaluing the area," Mo Linming, head of Huaxin town, said.

Zha Xianti, a Fengxi native who helped compile the town chronicle, said, "Buildings can be renewed, and industries can change, but the local culture cannot be cut off. When the renewal is completed, I hope residents can still recognize the trees by the pond, and children will still be able to tell the stories of this land."

Sticking to building a "warm and welcoming futuristic cultural town", Huaxin has been following a people-centric approach and enhancing residents' quality of life in diverse aspects, including housing, education, transportation and the environment. Local cultural heritage is maintained well, while more comprehensive and innovative efforts are relentlessly made to better utilize local resources.

Eyeing the future, the town is also ramping up efforts to improve the infrastructure, optimize its business environment, and nurture emerging industries. One of the town's highlighted urban renewal projects in the Fengxi area, the 95,000-square-meter Fengqi Sci-Tech Innovation Cloud Corridor, is expected to be completed in 2027. Primarily focusing on cutting-edge science and technology sectors, it has already become home to several quality businesses and aims to build a one-stop service platform integrating academic research, industrial chain collaboration, financial services and support for overseas expansion.

Over the past five years, about 14,800 companies have settled down in the town. As the Fengxi area continues to thrive with an entirely new look, Huaxin expects the once-urban villages to grow vigorously with emerging and advanced industries.

Ma Tan contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at wangxin2@chinadaily.com.cn